How to Teach Literature

When I wrote this series of teaching guides, two of my principal motivations were to preserve great works of literature and to encourage the young to read them and to profit from their study. I’ve thought for a long time that teachers need a detailed guide for teaching the discipline of high school literature. This book is the last in a series of four books for teachers of high school literature. The course work in this introductory teaching guide is designed to prepare 9th grade students for the more advanced literature covered in my other three literature books. During my thirty-five years of teaching literature, many students who come to my classes have told me that they’ve never understood the point of studying literature, and they rarely understood what a piece of literature is about. They appreciate the value of learning mathematics (everyone must balance a checkbook and figure out taxes) or science (we have to understand how the body works or how to cure disease) or history (we need to know something about our past), but they fail to understand why they’re required to read poems, plays, and novels written centuries ago about people and situations that they regard as irrelevant to life today and often written in a language that’s abstruse. Of course, they don’t share these objections in such detail with their English teachers; most of them don’t even know they harbor them, but deep down inside they feel this way when they enter the literature classroom. What a challenge for the English teacher! Fundamentally, teachers want two things: They want students to like them and to like the subject. Forget the first part. Just teach and keep the bar high. Insist that your students perform to the best of their ability. If your standards are high, even exacting, they will respect you and flourish in your classroom. Years later, they will thank you. Here is a list of teaching techniques I frequently use for 9th grade: • Note taking: As I discuss each literary work, students take notes. How does one ensure they do so? I walk up and down the rows to check the note taking…. • Brainstorming a topic: I raise an issue and students share their ideas as I write them on the board. • Brainstorming an essay assignment: After assigning an essay topic, I talk with the class about different ideas for a thesis statement, sub-topics, and supporting details and write these items on the board. • Review questions: I include review questions after each major literary work or unit. I separate students into small groups to answer the questions. They use their notes and literature books and submit answers for grading on an assigned date. • Plot diagram. Students sometimes create a plot diagram for drama or other genres. A template of a plot diagram is included in the handouts. • Graded discussion. I use the graded discussion technique in the 9th and 10th grade classrooms. It’s another way to ensure that homework is completed and to elicit student responses. Students like the activity. It tends to become lively, and it ensures that everyone adds to the discussion. And no one gets to snooze in the back row. I schedule graded discussions after we complete a major unit such as a play or a novel. • Book report posters. As an alternative to reading novels or short story collections, 9th grade students read two biographies a year. I bring several biographies to class from the school library and talk about them in order to whet students’ interest in people who have made enormous sacrifices, even given their lives, for the safety and well-being of others. I give students a few days to make their selections that they record on a list in order to avoid endless procrastination. I then ask them to create a colorful poster about the person they are reading about. I tell them to research information about him or her. They search the internet to find maps, colorful drawings, and other artwork and arrange the materials on a large poster board to make an attractive display of the person’s achievements. I show them posters made during previous years. On an assigned day, each student discusses his or her biography in front of the class and explains each item on the poster. If they wish, they can dress up as the person they’ve read about. Students enjoy this activity, and it develops their ability to speak fluently and informatively in front of a group. Because final exams are looming, I review the course reminding students about major themes and concerns of each era. I make one final plea to find time for reading. Many of them get the bug and discover that reading is indispensable to their happiness. A few probably shake their heads mentally and vow never again to voluntarily pick up a book they aren’t required to read. What can one say to obdurate non-readers? Well, one can always pass along Mark Twain’s comment: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” It is axiomatic to state that, to a significant degree, one’s character is molded by the books one reads. If young people read books that are ugly or perverted, those traits will be cemented into their characters. If they read books that contain beauty and wisdom, they will absorb those traits. Either way, today’s students will pass on their values to future generations.